Day 268: Medicine Hat - Drumheller
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Tuesday May 3rd
We woke at 6:30 this morning – amazing! We were all showered and breakfasted (McDonalds – we were sick of Tim’s) and on our way by 8am.
We had planned a big day, thus the early start. We wanted to explore the Dinosaur Provincial Park about two hours north of Medicine Hat; wander the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller; get lost in the Lacombe Corn Maze; and then make our way to Edmonton. It was a big ask, but with the three of us taking it in turns driving, we were confident we could do it.
We made it to Dinosaur Provincial Park a bit after 10am. It was really fascinating – all these amazing hills and mounds that looked straight out of Jurassic Park. There was also an outshoot of the Royal Tyrrell Museum – a field post – which we wandered through for half an hour, apparently the only ones to have visited that day.
As we all hopped back in the car and discussed whose turn it was to play music, Amanda realised she’d left her iPhone at the hotel in Medicine Hat. She was happy to leave it behind, but Luke and I both thought it was crazy – a $900 phone! First thing we needed to do was ensure it was actually at the hotel though, for which we required the hotel’s phone number. I stopped in at the nearest hotel, about 20km from the park, and Luke ran in to ask if they could look up the hotel’s number. Amanda then called and received confirmation that the phone was indeed where she had left it – under the pillow in the room. So began a 1.5 hour journey back to the hotel – back to the one city which we had really hated in our trip. So much for our plans to make it to Edmonton that night!
Having already driven the road towards Drumheller twice that morning, I looked at the map and noticed an alternative road. It was a slightly longer route, but it would take us close to the Saskatchewan border – we could make a quick border run, snap a photo with a ‘Welcome to Saskatchewan sign’, and add Saskatchewan as a place we had visited. A few nights ago, we had been seriously considering going to Saskatchewan for a night or two (we’d decided not to when we found out there was absolutely nothing to do in Saskatchewan.
That road was possibly the most boring road in history. The prairies are deathly boring – straight roads surrounded by plain paddocks. We cheered whenever there was a slight bend in the road or a hill! We did eventually detour into Saskatchewan – funnily there wasn’t a sign saying ‘Welcome to Saskatchewan’ at the actual border, but we could tell we’d changed provinces as the bitumen road suddenly stopped and a gravel road began!
Near 7pm we made it into Drumheller. What a cool little place – there were Dinosaurs everywhere! There is the world’s largest dinosaur; there’s a dinosaur on every street corner; even the waste disposal company has a dinosaur logo! After obtaining our three quotes we decided on a local family run motel, which was conveniently located near O’Shea’s Irish Pub. I enjoyed dinner of soup and spinach salad whilst watching the first two periods of the Canucks match; before we retired to our room to watch the end of the match. It had been a long day of driving – about 12 hours!
We woke at 6:30 this morning – amazing! We were all showered and breakfasted (McDonalds – we were sick of Tim’s) and on our way by 8am.
We had planned a big day, thus the early start. We wanted to explore the Dinosaur Provincial Park about two hours north of Medicine Hat; wander the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller; get lost in the Lacombe Corn Maze; and then make our way to Edmonton. It was a big ask, but with the three of us taking it in turns driving, we were confident we could do it.
We made it to Dinosaur Provincial Park a bit after 10am. It was really fascinating – all these amazing hills and mounds that looked straight out of Jurassic Park. There was also an outshoot of the Royal Tyrrell Museum – a field post – which we wandered through for half an hour, apparently the only ones to have visited that day.
As we all hopped back in the car and discussed whose turn it was to play music, Amanda realised she’d left her iPhone at the hotel in Medicine Hat. She was happy to leave it behind, but Luke and I both thought it was crazy – a $900 phone! First thing we needed to do was ensure it was actually at the hotel though, for which we required the hotel’s phone number. I stopped in at the nearest hotel, about 20km from the park, and Luke ran in to ask if they could look up the hotel’s number. Amanda then called and received confirmation that the phone was indeed where she had left it – under the pillow in the room. So began a 1.5 hour journey back to the hotel – back to the one city which we had really hated in our trip. So much for our plans to make it to Edmonton that night!
Having already driven the road towards Drumheller twice that morning, I looked at the map and noticed an alternative road. It was a slightly longer route, but it would take us close to the Saskatchewan border – we could make a quick border run, snap a photo with a ‘Welcome to Saskatchewan sign’, and add Saskatchewan as a place we had visited. A few nights ago, we had been seriously considering going to Saskatchewan for a night or two (we’d decided not to when we found out there was absolutely nothing to do in Saskatchewan.
That road was possibly the most boring road in history. The prairies are deathly boring – straight roads surrounded by plain paddocks. We cheered whenever there was a slight bend in the road or a hill! We did eventually detour into Saskatchewan – funnily there wasn’t a sign saying ‘Welcome to Saskatchewan’ at the actual border, but we could tell we’d changed provinces as the bitumen road suddenly stopped and a gravel road began!
Near 7pm we made it into Drumheller. What a cool little place – there were Dinosaurs everywhere! There is the world’s largest dinosaur; there’s a dinosaur on every street corner; even the waste disposal company has a dinosaur logo! After obtaining our three quotes we decided on a local family run motel, which was conveniently located near O’Shea’s Irish Pub. I enjoyed dinner of soup and spinach salad whilst watching the first two periods of the Canucks match; before we retired to our room to watch the end of the match. It had been a long day of driving – about 12 hours!
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